Patching Improvements

Small details make a big difference. Patching is at the core of everything you do with Max. In preparation for Max 8, we’ve been working on a few new features to improve patching and streamline your work. With enhancements to the way you can organize your objects and inspect information, it’s much easier to navigate through and build out your patches.

Groups

Once a patcher gets big enough, being able to move around and organize blocks of objects becomes a big chore. For Max 8 we’ve added the ability to group objects together so they can be easily selected and adjusted as needed.

Event Probing

Probing – watching what’s passing through patch cords – has been around for years in the Debug Menu, but it was limited to an audio signal or Jitter matrix. Now it also works for events and messages, giving you an immediate glance at what’s really going on in your patcher.

Pan and Zoom

As your patcher expands, quickly navigating around the canvas is essential. For Max 8 we’ve added the ability to pan and zoom using the mouse. This lets you move around and focus in on the parts you are working on while also being able to easily jump out to a global view.

Patch Cord Insert

You can now shift-drag an object over an existing patch cord to insert that object into the patch cord. You can also shift-drag an object away from a patch cord to remove it. This means the common task of adding or removing an object between two other objects happens in a single step.